To make sure transparency, the Union Authorities had made it necessary for all State Governments to make use of the cellular utility to report attendance of staff
To make sure transparency, the Union Authorities had made it necessary for all State Governments to make use of the cellular utility to report attendance of staff
5 months after the Union Authorities’s order making it necessary to seize attendance of Mahatma Gandhi Nationwide Rural Employment Assure Scheme (MGNREGS) staff by way of authorities cellular application-Nationwide Cellular Monitoring System (NMMS) at work websites the place 20 or extra staff are employed, at the very least three States — Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Assam — are pushing for making this common, although majority of the States nonetheless have considerations about it.
As per the information for September put out by the Union Ministry for Rural Improvement, there are solely eight States, together with the above three, which have recorded 90% and above utilization of the app. These embody Assam (93.42%), Odisha (92%), Tamil Nadu (93%) together with Karnataka (92%), Kerala (91.5%), Tripura (91%), Uttarakhand (91%) and Puducherry (99%). In Puducherry, although the utilization of the NMMS app is excessive, the quantum of worksites in September was simply 774.
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“We’ve got listened to complaints and made a number of tweaks to make it simpler for the top consumer. One huge change is permitting offline use of the app. The mate can report the attendance even when there isn’t a Web connectivity and it’ll get uploaded every time they attain a spot which has the mandatory sign power,” the official mentioned. The official additional added that based mostly on the complaints the app and the procedures are continually evolving.
Many shortcomings
There are nonetheless a bunch of shortcomings for which the employee finally ends up paying the penalty. The information from the Ministry reveal that in 9 States and Union Territories the utilization of the app is lower than 50% or much less. These States are Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Goa, Nagaland, Andaman and Nicobar and Jammu and Kashmir. In case of Goa and Nagaland, the utilization is zero.
The Rural Improvement Ministry began this on a pilot foundation on Could 21 final yr. Initially, the utilisation of utility was to be voluntary. To report the attendance by way of cellular utility, the mate or supervisor has to add geo-tagged pictures of the employees. Your entire train is aimed toward encouraging transparency and citizen oversight. The Union Authorities has been repeatedly flagging misuse of MGNREGS funds by the State Governments.
Andhra Pradesh, which has one of many largest MGNREGS workforce, used the NMMS app for recording attendance in September solely in 21.48% of over 92,000 work websites. In August this quantity was at 9.56%.
In Uttar Pradesh, one other State which receives a major proportion of complete MGNREGS nationwide funds, in September, out of 1.3 lakh work websites, solely in 50.19% the muster roll was stuffed by way of the app. The September numbers are marginally higher than August, when it was 48.31%.
In West Bengal, the place the Centre, owing to accountability and different procedural lapses, has withheld ₹7,000 crore of MGNREGS funds, the utilization is simply 25.8% in September. In Jammu and Kashmir, the place government-sponsored Web outages are a daily incidence, the quantity for September stands at a pitiable 7.9%. Bihar with 54.26% utilization and Madhya Pradesh with 51.36% additionally fall within the tally of reluctant customers.
Technical glitches
Within the States which have been reporting excessive utilization too, many staff find yourself struggling wage losses resulting from technical glitches. Nikhil Shenoy, divisional secretary, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, Jodhpur, Rajasthan has an illustrative instance. Rajasthan has reported 86.75% fee of utilization of the app. “We tallied the bodily muster rolls with the digital one captured by the NMMS app for 14 gram panchayats in Dungerpur district of Rajasthan for the month of September. Our evaluation reveals that 302 labour days are lacking from the attendance data within the app. It’s effectively and good that the federal government needs to herald extra transparency by way of the app. Why ought to the employees should pay the penalty? For the lack of wages even for someday could possibly be catastrophic,” mentioned Mr. Shenoy.
One other instance is Bihar, the place a pointy dip was reported within the fee of app utilization from 75.15% in August to 54.26% in September. “There are server capability points, then there are issues within the rectification procedures. Say, a employee’s attendance couldn’t be recorded for a cause, until now as a laid process, he needed to go to the DM [District Magistrate], which isn’t at all times possible. We’ve got shifted it now to the block degree, although, this appears to be a recurring subject,” a senior Bihar official mentioned.
